Monday, June 16, 2008

Oh, the funky things we find at garage sales. Vegan Mom picked up this rosette and timbale iron (circa the 1950s, I think) this weekend. To be honest, I have never seen such a thing and wasn't even sure what a rosette or timbale was, let alone how the iron aided in their creation. Luckily, the box included a handy book of "unusual old world and American recipes" that answered all my questions. Rosettes are a type of cookie, and timbales are pastry shells into which on could place a variety of things (the book's suggestion: creamed tuna. Um . . . no?). The method of making these things smacks of the 1950s, too. Heat iron in fat, dunk iron into batter, dunk iron back into fat and deep-fry until done. The batters rely heavily on eggs and condensed milk but I really want to use these things just for the fun of it. So, stay tuned. And, has anyone heard of these type of irons before?

I've seen recipes for rosettes in old cookbooks, but always wondered how you get them off the iron once they've been fried--wouldn't the batter coat the entire thing?? I've always thought timbales were like little inverted custards or shaped veggie-and-custard thingies. . . never heard of them having a pastry crust before.

I have seen many recipes for timables in vintage cook books. I have a very old edition of The Joy of Cooking and it is just loaded with these things. Any fancy menu plan from the 50's suggests serving timbales filled with all manner of icky creamed items such as the tuna you mentioned. Have fun!

I have been thinking about these since you posted and had a hard time with them - I wonder if you can "season" them like you do with a cast iron pan which might create a non-stick surface? Just an idea...